Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
I get what you're saying and I've found that people have a diverse experience when it comes to their parents, so there are a lot of people who can't relate. However, I have a similar relationship to you with mine and it took having children to realize how alien my parents are.
All of my kids are curious and show talent in things that are completely outside my experience or interest, but I make a conscious effort to learn about those things because it's important to me to support them. That wasn't something I experienced as a kid. In defense of my parents, I have more opportunity to exploring my kid's interests, but it really doesn't take much.
I'll give you an example: I was a good kid growing up and did well in school but my parents mostly ignored me. I liked playing video games but my parents, especially my father, thought it was a waste of time. One day we were out though and he happened to see a demo of one of the Mortal Kombat games and he is a big fan of old martial arts movies. He bought the game for me and we went home and played it for a couple hours. That was over 30 years ago and I still remember who he played and the stages. I was so excited I remember he kept asking me to sit down because I was so elated that we had this thing in common. He never played video games with me before or after but I remember how excited I was that I thought I could do something my dad wanted to do.
It really instilled in me how important it is to meet you kids where they are instead of requiring them to come to you. I can't say why your (or my) parents didn't, but I can tell you there isn't anything wrong with you and if you choose to have children, it is really satisfying to see them light up when you engage with their talents.